Toys R Us Liquidation and Remembering Stephen Hawking

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Hello and welcome to Altered Geek I'm your

host Steve Megatron Phillips and in this episode

of the podcast I'll be covering some things solo

because well The timing didn't line up booth

ninja was out and Dodd was incapacitated so it

just fell to me to record this episode this week.

And so without further ado, I plan to cover some

of Scanner51's various emails that he'd sent

to me over the past month and a half that unfortunately

we didn't get to during the feedback episode.

Also, we'll be covering the Toys R Us debacle

of their liquidation. and the death of Stephen

Hawking, among other things. So yeah, that's

going to cover this episode pretty much. So as

always, this episode is brought to you by Gamefly.

You can sign up today by going to gameflyoffer

.com slash alteredgeek to get percentage off

and get some cool stuff there. So going into

the episode, I want to tackle Scanner51's emails

first. Since they're about a month out now, in

a particular comment, he says on the February

12th episode, probably when we started doing

the new show format, he says, hey guys, first

off, as usual, great show, liking the new format

of the show. You two are doing great, so this

is in regards to the episode from the 12th. You

guys said that you were unhappy with DC Comics.

My question is... Is it just the movie side or

book side as well? I hope it's not the book side.

If it is, you guys need to give the books another

look. They are killing it in the book side of

things. Rebirth was a game -changer. Tom King's

Batman is number three, or top three sold every

month. Batman White Knight, incredible. Dark

Knight's Medal, awesome. Doomsday Clock, the

only words I have for that right now is pancakes

and raw sash. Meeting Batman. Action has been

good. I just received num - to Number 1000 issues,

the company crossovers have been great, and somehow

some new Superman became a really good book.

Again, give the books another look, you'll be

pleasantly surprised. I myself have not gotten

really into the comics. I got into them slightly

reading them online prior to the New 52. And

then with New 52 back in, I think that was 2011,

I decided to jump on and investigate the series

kind of starting off at this new starting point.

And then the continuity issues started happening.

Particularly with Batman, everybody else not

so much. And then the story started going downhill

for me and I started tanking on it and then I

heard that they were gonna redo it again and

collide the universes back together. the pre

-new 52 and the new 52 creating the the rebirth

and While I do have the the first issue of Batman

rebirth and a few other things like that I'm

not even sure what issue they're at now because

I think they did that two three years ago Maybe

four years ago. I'm not entirely sure I'm a little

behind on some of my information, but the The

comics, I've kind of gone over some of it with

Mike. I've kind of done some of the Batman Beyond.

Batman Beyond is about my only interest point

at this point of DC Comics. The Dark Nights Metal,

I kind of glanced at it, didn't really care,

the Doomsday thing. My thing is is I don't want

to have to own a comic from every line to get

the story. And that was something that was a

little frustrating is so many crossovers between

the different titles. It was getting too hard

to differentiate a Batman story from a Superman,

from a Justice League, from anything else, so

I just opted not to read anymore. I've kind of

stuck solely now to animation and film. I am

no longer a comic collector by any... meaning

of the word. I'm actually liquidating all of

my comics. which as soon as I get a tally of

what I have left, I will probably put them up

on my Twitter at SCP21. You'll probably see something

on eBay posting of some of this stuff. I've recently

sold a ton of stuff. I'm selling my new 52 Justice

League Batman. I'm selling my DC collectibles,

the new adventures of Batman and Robin, Batman

figure, both new in the box. I'm going to be

selling slash possibly giving away my Batman

Beyond Return of the Joker custom figure that

I made way back in like 2011, 2010, somewhere

in there. I'm going to be offloading, I have

literally almost nothing left collectible wise

of action figures unless it's like bat related.

I honestly I just I can't get into the comics

I mean I I know that Tom King's been knocking

it out of the park with Batman and honestly if

it weren't for the fact that had been burnt out

by Snyder and What they've been doing with the

comics I would probably check it out, but I I

Missed the days of when I was reading during

the the detective comics days Back in the 90s

when we were doing nightfall that to me was my

my Batman era of comics, and then I didn't collect

for a while. The animated series is still something

I would get into if that were out. I still have

a few of those, I believe, but other than that,

I'm done. I'm physically done as far as collecting

things, comics or anything else. I don't want

it taking up the space. I don't want... I just,

I don't want to be spending the money on it,

like... Star Trek Online, for instance, just

came out with the ability to print your starships

within the game. You can have them sent to a

printer to either get them like a base coat,

you can get them in a one, you know, one color

like gold, silver, black, kind of a glossy paint

where you can have it hand detailed. And they

I toyed with the idea for a minute because I

would love to get my Starship for My Star Trek

chapter that I have coming up Which isn't totally

finalized yet, but it's almost there I I wanted

to do it, but it's $200 just for the base model

and then I think 250 for the the slightly painted

and then 350 for the hand detailed paint and

For that I could go spend 50 bucks go buy a model

kit and then do it myself Because it's essentially

I mean granted if you're doing customizations

based in the game on different pieces of the

Starships Yeah, it's wonderful like if you're

mixing and matching parts from different versions

of the ship or variations of that class then

that's awesome, but If you're using something

that's like a base model, like I have the Constitution

Class Refit Enterprise 2 Heavy Cruiser, which

is basically the Enterprise A from Star Trek

6, that's my USS Future Imperfect, and so it

would essentially not really be that much different

other than a couple of paint aesthetics, and

for that I can do that on my own. The only other

thing that would make it difficult is getting

the decals printed to go on it. But for $300

I could have it CG animated and then I could

do whatever I want with it So I and not have

to have it take up space although I would love

to have the ship but $300 is a lot to swallow

And I've gotten completely off track of Batman

here, but yeah, I just I don't collect anything

anymore It's it's sad, but I just I can't get

into it anymore moving on to his Star Trek discovery

Comment he says I want to talk about Star Trek

discovery first off I've never seen the show

only recap shows on YouTube But I did see the

enterprise on the show the ship looked great

The look seemed to fit in with discovery ships

after seeing me seeing this I kind of hope that

for next season the producers Just admit that

the show is really a look reboot and really doesn't

take place in the prime timeline Either way it

looked cool. It was cool. Have a good weekend.

So they've essentially said it is set in the

prime timeline No matter what we feel about it.

They've managed to make history and everything

else collide and connect into Where it should

line up with the original series, it's mostly

just a look reboot as far as like the visual

aesthetics But they're claiming that the story

fits in it. I still have yet to see how the Klingons

piece into this That's that's my only my only

gripe about the show at this point is the Klingons

because I don't see any feasible way they could

look like orcs and then change into what we have

in Enterprise, the original series, the next

generation Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. So I

just, I've opted not to pay attention to that

aspect because if it does, it infuriates me.

So yeah, that's about all I got there. And then

he says, as far as the old media, I really enjoyed

the last episode about Dead Media. I remember

getting my first CD. I remember going to the

warehouse. It was a media store in the San Francisco

Bay area. They're dead too now. To buy CDs, I

guess with all the new tech out there, I haven't

given much thought to what I've seen come and

go. I remember Betamax, my uncle still having

a working one. VHS to DVD. Now I still buy DVDs,

mostly for the DC animated stuff. He says...

You know that I've seen his setup which yes I

have He also buys digital mostly now so much

easier so many good movies spread across two

phones and a tablet Yeah, that's kind of my boat

too. I have an external hard drive and I just

dump all of my stuff to it and then plug it into

my Flash drive of what I'm gonna watch that day

copy to the flash drive plug it into my portable

computer. It's behind my TV And then it works

great. It's like my own personal Netflix without

the visual interface, which I may yet come up

with something for that. But he says, yeah, he

subscribes to SiriusXM and Google Play Music.

No more CDs. I've not bought a book in well over

three years, and I've migrated from comics to

digital comics, but that story is for the pullback.

Sorry, guys. One more thing. There was one time

when moving from old tech to new tech made me

sad when his daughter was six months old. Went

to a DC to visit family and see the space shuttle

said tell my daughter we used to do that We used

to fly in space now. We don't she's for now.

I hope we fix that soon I think now that we've

had the SpaceX thing Successfully launching.

I think we're gonna start seeing more space programs

and more space travel, which is awesome. I Have

no qualms of going there, but I have no I think

it would be great for something for them to do

other than go to the space station In our lifetime

anyway, I know that we go to the space station

quite often, but at this point I just I don't

really want to See that that boat play out so

and then as far as The the topic on the the comic

shop I will leave that for an episode in the

future when I have a co -host. Because I think

it's a logical question, it just needs a little

bit more thought. So without further ado, I'm

gonna take a quick break, come back on the other

side with another Dead Medium, Toy Stores. Be

back after this. They got a million toys at Toys

R Us that I can play with I don't wanna grow

up I'm a Toys R Us kid They got the best for

so much less You'll really flip your lid From

bikes to trains to video games It's the biggest

toy store there is Gee whiz I don't wanna grow

up Cause baby if I did I couldn't be a Toys R

Us kid Once a Toys R Us kid Always a Toys R Us

kid So as you heard with the uh The sad days

are here now. Toys R Us will be no more. Can't

say I didn't see this coming for years. Every

time I go buy one, there's still one in Flint,

Michigan that is close to our main mall in the

city, around all of my family. There's also,

they're used to, they used to have a Kids R Us

too, which the Kids R Us closed down like five

to ten years ago. The Babies R Us is still there.

However, it's also been let known that Toys R

Us liquidation also affects Babies R Us. So,

you have 30 days to use gift cards and game's

over. So, yeah, it's gonna add to stress for

the companies that make toys and games. Basically

meaning that changes for the owners of the strip

malls or most of the toys the stories are or

stores are yeah I can't speak today, so it's

gonna impact more than 30 ,000 toys arrest workers

in the US and Yeah, that's just insane and unfortunate

because I Feel bad for everybody. It's losing

their jobs. I mean you're gonna get some great

sales in the stores. I hope You're probably gonna

see a lot of eBay scalping on there but Yeah,

it says that the stores won't close right away

as far as the the babies are us But when they

shut their doors, it'll be unclear. So People

that have registries there are encouraged to

open it at Lake Target Walmart or somewhere else

so yeah, the the hopes is that somebody will

buy it as well as his toys are us but Toys R

Us has been losing money for years It also accounts

for about 11 % of Mattel's annual sales and 9

% of Hasbro's Which is gonna hurt them. I don't

know how much I mean because both those companies

have like entire aisles at those stores Which

means you're gonna be relegated to going to places

like Meyer, Target, Walmart Pretty much anywhere

else that's that's one of those those big toy

retailers now because Like KB Toys is gone, Toys

R Us is gonna be gone, and it's been around for

over 70 years. Toys R Us is basically gonna close

and sell all of its 740 stores in the US, and

it's kind of unfortunate. Yeah, they, back in

2007, they even bought that FAO Schwartz store,

and then it closes the... Store in 2015 and sells

the brand a year later and then in 2015 they

closed their flagship store of Toys R Us in Times

Square, which had the 60 foot Ferris wheel after

14 years and then 2017 they filed for chapter

11 bankruptcy protection and then following poor

holiday sales They followed a plan to close or

sell at 740 stores in the US which you'll probably

see more of the mom -and -pop stores come up

now at this point because the Giants are basically

falling. The David and Goliath aspect of the

entire industry is just collapsing. People don't

make as much money or they can buy better deals

online. Toys R Us, let's face it too, they cost

a lot more. And that was one of the reasons that

I stayed away from Toys R Us. It was honestly

because I couldn't afford to go there. Not that

I didn't appreciate the big quantity of things

or the variety. or even the exclusives, but even

that didn't save them. Which is, again, unfortunate.

But yeah, they're gonna be closing their stores

in Canada, they're gonna be closing, like, it's,

yeah, the Toys R Us in America is gonna have

a huge blow to Hasbro and Mattel overall, though,

just because they're the main, they're literally

the only single toy store left. For the most

part and that's that's unfortunate and and it's

pretty bad when Hasbro lost as much as they did

considering they owned like nerf my little pony

transformers They have all the Disney properties

pretty much Pixar Marvel Lucasfilm Yeah, so and

even in the fourth quarter all that fell so And

Walmart and Target are having struggles too.

I think a lot of it is the toys keep going up

in price And it's not sustainable as it was 20

years ago. I remember paying $20 for an Ultra

Transformer 20 years ago, and now they're like

$60 or $70. Which is just bonkers. Like, I can't

even fathom spending that much on one of those

figures. Like, my Beast Wars Megatron, Transmetal

2 Dragon, I bought it for $20. 20 years ago maybe

more and It went I sold it on eBay for $65 used

no package with all the parts mint condition

like I mean The fact I tripled it and I basically

somebody paid what you would pay now going to

the store to get the same toy It's just it's

ridiculous. So it's I'm wondering if it's because

Amazon has Basically put the pressure on on having

lower prices and the fact that none of these

stores want to match each other's prices or they're

all trying to Trying to basically Strong arm

you into paying something. I don't really know

but MGA Entertainment is trying to organize a

group of fellow toy makers in Canada to purchase

The liquidation of the Toys R Us stores in Canada

to more or less keep them open so again we'll

see what happens there's still there's still

time I mean even though they haven't found anybody

to buy the company I mean the Canadian division

has about 80 stores so it's still less than the

American side but the Canada side basically is

said to have a good business sense and run it

efficiently Who knows what happens to the the

UK version with the 25 stores they have there?

This is just this is just mind -boggling watching

a giant tumble and fall So we'll see what happens.

It's it's still a couple weeks out before anything

severe happens But I have a feeling we're gonna

see a lot more Giants tumble this year. We're

probably gonna see Sears go down. We're probably

gonna see the rest of Kmart go down you're probably

gonna start seeing a lot of drops in pricing

just because people aren't gonna be buying anything.

It's come to that point where people are just

kind of sick of it or they just decide I don't

need it. Kind of like I've decided with a lot

of my collectibles, I just don't need it. So

I want it, don't get me wrong, but I go to yard

sales, my wife does, for our boys and that's

where they get all their stuff. So it's just...

It's better off that way. We don't have to spend

as much and As a whole I I think that it just

helps people save money Professor Hawking, it's

an honor and a privilege to meet you, sir. I

know I want to thank you for taking time to see

me My pleasure I enjoyed reading your paper very

much. You clearly have a brilliant mind. I know.

Your thesis at the Higgs boson is a black hole,

accelerating fabrics through time. It's fascinating.

Thank you. It came to me one morning in the shower.

That's nice. Too bad it's wrong And finally to

round out this particular episode for the Friday

edition because I'm not getting into a ton of

news being that one there's not a lot of it But

two I just there's really no point We've talked

Toys R Us we've talked not collecting we've caught

up in some feedback Stephen Hawking died this

week at age 76, one of the science's brightest

stars, as they put it. Which, it's sad to say

that he passed away. He was in Star Trek, even

as like a cameo thing, kind of a dream. It's

sad to lose a man of brilliance. I'm still of

the opinion, yes, some science has merit, just

like some beliefs do too. My particular belief

is you can't have chaos and create something

from nothing Chaos doesn't create it destroys

so like I don't see how the beginning of the

universe so that's Why I believe in God partially

is and that's totally different side of things

but his information as far as Technology and

science as far as like the today world in the

future He's a very intelligent man and had a

lot of a lot of breakthroughs on Singularity

space -time Despite Hawking Not having the ability

to speak or Really communicate in a normal sense

and in being confined to the chair his brain

was still all there and He I Don't know. It's

just it's I don't know all that much about what

he knows Or what he was he was good at but he

had a lot of a lot of theories of you know cosmic

proportions you know with Carl Sagan and people

like that and First to show quantum fluctuations,

distribution of matter. Like I said, the guy

was brilliant. I give kudos and props to him.

He's, you know, floating among the stars now.

It truly was a sad day for science. And it was

just kind of shocking that, you know, He passed

away. I mean, I know it was inevitable that it

was going to happen at some point and then He's

also been fortunate enough to be in You know

biographies documentaries, you know theory of

everything You know the Simpsons and in the next

generation the Big Bang Theory It's it's He's

had a lasting effect on science and pop culture,

and that's a thing of legends, so... I'm gonna

leave that there before I torch and burn this

entire section. It's not something I'm well -versed

in. Dodd is well -versed in it, but by the time

we get a chance to record, it'll be old news,

and I just felt that he should get his time to

shine. So, yeah. Think that's about going to

round it out on this episode What do you guys

want to hear about next week? I have no Tuesday

episode backlogged. So there's a possibility

there may be a Tuesday episode that I'll record

Sunday night and Release on Tuesday. There's

a possibility there may not be so if you guys

want to hear something want a topic We do have

a few cataloged back as far as the the topics

themselves are concerned I may pull from one

of them if it's something I can do on my own.

If it's not, I will bring it up when I have a

co -host. But until next time, I've been Steve

and C. Phillips on Altered Geek, and you can

get Altered Geeky with the Altered Geeks every

week on the Geekcast Radio Network and alteredgeek

.com.